Friday 28 October 2005 20.20 EDT
First published on Friday 28 October 2005 20.20 EDT

It is almost three years since Leon Pryce played for Great Britain, when an attitude problem which took him to the brink of a jail sentence threatened to destroy the potential he had first shown as a teenager marking Wendell Sailor at Twickenham in the first match of the 2000 World Cup. So the fact that Pryce is one of worryingly few obvious reasons for home optimism as the Lions enter the Tri-Nations series tonight represents a major turnaround for one of Super League's brightest but most maddening talents.

"It feels like being picked for the first time again," the 24-year-old says of his recall as a wing with licence to roam, the role from which he starred in Bradford's late-season surge to the Super League title. "I feel much more confident in my ability and personality now."

Pryce admits he struggled to handle the pressure of expectation as a former Odsal ball boy who made his first-team debut for the Bulls aged 16 and played in his first grand final on his 18th birthday in 1999. "It made it hard on my personal life," he says, knowing that he came uncomfortably close to a custodial sentence after he pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding following a glassing incident at the end of the 2002 season, eventually serving 120 hours' community service when he might have been playing for Britain in the 2003 Ashes series.

"When I was younger I didn't really know how to handle some of that pressure. Now I'm more mature, 24, and I feel I can handle all those things better. My son will be three in December, and that's changed me for the better as well. When you're a father you've got to grow up."

On the field he identifies two factors in the sudden change in his fortunes, from being dropped to the substitutes' bench after a poor performance at Wakefield in July to his starring role in the Bulls' 12-match winning run culminating in a man-of-the-match display in the grand final. Firstly he had decided to leave Bradford for St Helens next season; then Brian Noble, his club and now national coach, let him settle back on the wing.

"It doesn't help when you're being pushed around positions your whole career," Pryce explained, although such uncertainty has always been largely driven by his desire to establish himself as a stand-off. "That was one of the reasons why I decided to move clubs and I think in the 12 games I've played in the same position you've seen what happens once I'm settled and playing on confidence.

"The other deciding factor for me was knowing I was going to St Helens. It had been there in the back of my mind all season, because I knew I needed to get away from Bradford to give myself a kick up the arse. But once I'd made my mind up I didn't want people thinking I hadn't been trying my best. I wanted to show everybody that I still love Bradford, it will always be my heart. That was the main reason I wanted to finish on such a high note."

He could not have scripted a better farewell, coming in from the right wing at Old Trafford to beat Kevin Sinfield for the pivotal try in Bradford's grand final win against Leeds and providing most of the other bright attacking moments in a dour Yorkshire derby. Noble seems certain to give him similar freedom against New Zealand tonight, although Pryce will have to cross to the left wing, with the vice-captain Brian Carney maintaining his combination with Martin Gleeson down the right.

"It might take a while to adjust, but I have played on the left before," Pryce says - in fact the last of his six Test caps was on the left wing against the Kiwis when he was one of the stars in a 16-10 win at the JJB Stadium in November 2002. "As a winger sometimes you feel you're not getting involved. I just want to get in there and help and sometimes you're best coming inside, like I did in the grand final, and running at the forwards because they're a bit slower. You can use a sidestep and speed around the big people."

Encouragingly, Pryce sounds genuinely enthused by the new atmosphere in the Britain camp since his last international experience, and he believes that Keiron Cunningham, another key man returning from a three-year Lions' exile tonight, has been similarly impressed. "It's been brilliant, the tightest group I've been involved with. It's Team Great Britain now, there's no cliques from Leeds, Bradford, St Helens or Wigan. That's the biggest difference I've noticed from the last time I was in the squad. Keiron's the same, it's been great for both of us to come back and find things so much better."

Following the loss of so many senior players from last year's squad, and against a New Zealand team who have made such an impressive start to the tournament, Britain need big performances from both of their new old faces if they are to disprove the general pessimism about their chances of even reaching the final.